* Serah Farron (???????, Sera Faron?) - The main protagonist of the game.[8][9] She is Lightning's younger sister, Snow's fiancée, and the only one out of her friends to know Lightning still exists. Gaining the abilities to have visions of the future and use time gates, Serah journeys with Noel to find and save her sister. Her weapon is a crossbow that can transform into a sword, though its true form is that of her Moogle companion Mog.
* Lightning (??????, Raitoningu?) - The narrator of the game. Having been attacked by the emerging Chaos and subsequently taken to Valhalla, Lightning is no longer believed to be alive by others except Serah. In reality, she has become a knight, protecting the Goddess Etro's shrine in Valhalla while being confronted by Caius along the way.[10] She now wields a new gunblade resembling a combination of her Blazefire Saber and a traditional sword.
* Noel Kreiss (????????, Noeru Kuraisu?) - The main male protagonist of the game. Noel comes from 700 AF, where he was the last surviving human in a world that faced destruction. After a chance encounter with Lightning, he travels into the past to find her sister, Serah. He sets off with her to save Lightning in the ultimate hopes of changing the future.[10] As a hunter and beast tamer, Noel can command the monsters he defeats, turning them to crystals, and gain access to new monster skills by syncing up with them in battle through the Feral Link battle mechanism. He uses two swords that are able to combine to form a spear in battle.
Guest CharactersEdit
* Snow Villiers (??????????, Sunou Viria-su?) - Snow left to search for Lightning two years after her disappearance, but is nowhere to be found at the time Serah set out on her own search. He is somehow transformed into a Pulse l'Cie again and appears as a guest character in the Sunleth Waterscape at 300 AF. He saves Serah and Noel from a mass-merging of Flan monsters, before being harshly criticized by Noel for his recklessness and inability to protect people. [11] Despite this, he is said to be unconcerned about the relationship between Serah and Noel.
AntagonistsEdit
* Caius Ballad (?????????, Kaiasu Baraddo?)[12] - A mysterious man who was once Noel's friend and mentor.[13] He is also from the future, and is an important figure in both Noel's past and Serah's future. His reason for opposing Lightning is currently unknown, but it is said that he is of equal strength to her. He is said to be on a similar mission to Lightning's, and will be in her way as she tries to complete her own. Caius also has the ability to transform into Chaos Bahamut. He travels with his companion Yeul and they pursue Noel and Serah. It appears that Caius is a guardian of the timeline, as he intends to dispose of any 'contradictions' in it, namely Noel and Serah, believing them to be enemies. It has also been revealed that he is immortal and retains memory of all timeline events.
Other CharactersEdit
* Mog (????, Mo-guri?) - Serah's new moogle companion and a gift from Lightning. Instead of a traditional moogle's pom-pom, Mog's pom-pom is a glowing crystal. He carries a rod adorned with a clock, and can transform into Serah's weapon. He is a treasure hunter and will reveal invisible treasure chests within dungeons. He can access treasure in out-of-reach places by being thrown by the player. He also uses his magic to execute the Mog Clock pre-battle system.
* Hope Estheim (??????????, Ho-pu Esutohaimu?) - Hope meets Serah and Noel, and is now the leader of the Academy, researching the world's history and looking for a new energy source for Cocoon in the absence of the fal'Cie. He is aware of Serah's travels through time because of his research and helps her in her search for Lightning.[14] He also wants to change history in order to improve the world and bring back the people dear to him. It is currently unknown if he will be playable, but it is confirmed that he will have an important role in the plot and will be featured more prominently than the other returning characters due to his connection to the game's theme of regeneration and rebirth.[15]
* NORA (??, Nora?) - Snow's friends: Gadot, Lebreau, Maqui and Yuj have stayed with Serah during their years on Pulse while resuming their occupation as New Bodhum's neighborhood watch group.
* Alyssa Zaidelle (????????, Arisa Zaideru?) - A young girl who is part of the Academy and Hope's trusted assistant. They work together to understand the nature of paradoxes and help Noel and Serah in their journey. In the E3 trailer, she shows Serah the grave of a friend who died running from the Purge, and she helps Hope assist Serah and Noel in the "Change the Future" trailer.
* PSICOM (????, Saikomu?) - The military corps from Cocoon now handles monster extermination on Pulse to protect the new cities that the citizens are building, and look over the rebuilding of the formerly floating world.
* Paddra Nsu-Yeul (???, Yu-ru?)[12] - A mysterious young girl with her face partially covered by a veil who is Caius's traveling companion, and has a strong connection to him. She makes a small appearance in the TGS 2011 Trailer, in which she tells Noel and Serah that she and Caius have been watching over them. She believes that she and Serah have the same ability to 'show people the way', presumably in how they can both have visions of the future. She was previously mentioned in Final Fantasy XIII as a Pulsian seeress and author of the fourth and ninth Analects.
* Sazh Katzroy (?????????, Sazzu Kattsuroi?) - Sazh is currently engaged in activities to improve Gran Pulse.[16]
* Oerba Dia Vanille, Oerba Yun Fang, and Dajh Katzroy have made brief appearances in the "Change the Future" trailer. Vanille's English voice actress has also confirmed her reprisal.[17] However, nothing else is known about their roles. One interesting note is that Fang doesn't have the l'Cie brand on her right arm
I don't understand the hate toward 12, while I was agree it has one of the weakest storylines in a main FF game, but gameplay wise it rocked, I loved how the game was totally wide open.
The award for weakest storyline is still held by FFV.
Exdeath was the worst villain I can recall in all FF games and probably could give other RPGs a run for their money. The mediocrity was quite amazing even for its time. Exdeath however was offset by the job system which was equally amazing and for good reasons.
I think the only person I gave two-shits about in V was Galuf. The rest of the cast might have well been amoebas.
XII had a strong start but we can see that it was an unfinished project, the pacing was kinda off, too little character development for Fran, Vaan and Penelo and the inter-changeability of each character made them too vanilla in combat. And then there's the whole thing about being way too close to Star Wars.
I was waiting for a line rip of " Now witness the firepower of this fully operational battlestation" or Tarkin's "You may fire when ready".
Other than that? The story was a fresh change of pace, the races of Ivalice are fun and engaging (Bangaa!), you're free to explore the world and do sidequests almost from the outset and the landscapes were beautiful and crisp for lolPS2.
I stand by my position that SE should invest more in the Ivalice alliance.
I don't understand the hate toward 12, while I was agree it has one of the weakest storylines in a main FF game, but gameplay wise it rocked, I loved how the game was totally wide open.
The award for weakest storyline is still held by FFV.
Exdeath was the worst villain I can recall in all FF games and probably could give other RPGs a run for their money. The mediocrity was quite amazing even for its time. Exdeath however was offset by the job system which was equally amazing and for good reasons.
I think the only person I gave two-shits about in V was Galuf. The rest of the cast might have well been amoebas.
XII had a strong start but we can see that it was an unfinished project, the pacing was kinda off, too little character development for Fran, Vaan and Penelo and the inter-changeability of each character made them too vanilla in combat. And then there's the whole thing about being way too close to Star Wars.
I was waiting for a line rip of " Now witness the firepower of this fully operational battlestation" or Tarkin's "You may fire when ready".
Other than that? The story was a fresh change of pace, the races of Ivalice are fun and engaging (Bangaa!), you're free to explore the world and do sidequests almost from the outset and the landscapes were beautiful and crisp for lolPS2.
I stand by my position that SE should invest more in the Ivalice alliance.
You've pretty much said everything in great detail as to why I both loved and was disappointed by XII, yet still find it to be one of my favorites among the franchise. Thank you for saying what I couldn't earlier.
The award for weakest storyline is still held by FFV.
Exdeath was the worst villain I can recall in all FF games and probably could give other RPGs a run for their money. The mediocrity was quite amazing even for its time. Exdeath however was offset by the job system which was equally amazing and for good reasons.
You really think that FF5's plot is worse than that of the original three FFs?
Even though the FF5 characters were all blank slates as far as their abilities went, they were still actual characters with emotions and dialogue...unlike FF1 and FF3's nameless protagonists. Considering the three characters that are permanent members of your party in FF2 have no development or actual impact on the story outside of what they do as a collective group (that is, the same exact thing any RPG party does as it strives toward its goal), I daresay that they're about as forgettable as the nameless ones, as well. Only Leon and the temps were of any actual interest, and if you've played the game, you know what happens to most of them, so...
On the subject of Exdeath, though...I have a hard time getting behind the argument that he was a trash villain when he pulled off the majority of his goals so well. He didn't just sit on a comfortable little throne like Chaos, the Emperor, the Cloud of Darkness, and Zemus: Exdeath was proactive and had quite a bit of interaction with your party as he went about his business. This trait is one of the things that makes Golbez, Kefka, Sephiroth, and Kuja great villains, as well: the player witnesses their actions firsthand and sees the actual negative impact they make on the world around them. They do a much better job at making the player hate them, and isn't that what we generally want in a rotten-to-the-core villain?
I love III, but the story was as generic as it could possibly get.
- Start game
- You're a chosen warrior.
- find 3 other warriors.
- find old people that'll help you save the world. (from Darkness! Why? Because darkness is bad! Very bad!)
- save the world in the most generic way possible.
- yay.
I WISH I could say there was more between those lines but there isn't, lol. I haven't touched V yet but if it gets simpler than that...
It's mentioned in III that your purpose is to restore balance between light and darkness, and at the time the world is shrouded in darkness, hence being the warriors of light to restore balance.
But what I think would be interesting is an imbalance of light overclouding everything and having warriors of dark bring about a necessary degree of chaos to assure planetary function and balance.
Too often the objective is predictable and catered to one angle or approach of what is good and bad.
It's like what Squall said in FFVIII: There's no absolute in determining what is good and evil, simply different viewpoints and courses of action in what they believe is right.
The award for weakest storyline is still held by FFV.
Exdeath was the worst villain I can recall in all FF games and probably could give other RPGs a run for their money. The mediocrity was quite amazing even for its time. Exdeath however was offset by the job system which was equally amazing and for good reasons.
You really think that FF5's plot is worse than that of the original three FFs?
Even though the FF5 characters were all blank slates as far as their abilities went, they were still actual characters with emotions and dialogue...unlike FF1 and FF3's nameless protagonists. Considering the three characters that are permanent members of your party in FF2 have no development or actual impact on the story outside of what they do as a collective group (that is, the same exact thing any RPG party does as it strives toward its goal), I daresay that they're about as forgettable as the nameless ones, as well. Only Leon and the temps were of any actual interest, and if you've played the game, you know what happens to most of them, so...
On the subject of Exdeath, though...I have a hard time getting behind the argument that he was a trash villain when he pulled off the majority of his goals so well. He didn't just sit on a comfortable little throne like Chaos, the Emperor, the Cloud of Darkness, and Zemus: Exdeath was proactive and had quite a bit of interaction with your party as he went about his business. This trait is one of the things that makes Golbez, Kefka, Sephiroth, and Kuja great villains, as well: the player witnesses their actions firsthand and sees the actual negative impact they make on the world around them. They do a much better job at making the player hate them, and isn't that what we generally want in a rotten-to-the-core villain?
Honestly Final Fantasy doesn't start for me until 4. Yeah it's blasphemy to the diehard RPG fans and I understand the significance the success of the originals had on the following titles but you could play through I-III and literally get nothing out of it other than a good nostaliga trip. This is opinion of course.
IV is what started the formula I think most of us love/hate. You had a villain, an ensemble of characters gathered to fight against said evil and while IV had a ton of cliches (what FF doesnt?) and the cast drove the story whereas V had a formula involving some rather unremarkable individuals who get very little room to develop. Cecil, Rosa, Kain, Golbez and even the four fiends had more depth than anything Exdeath brought to the table. He was the big bad and that's about it - his motives were summed up as "im evil, deal with it!"
Exdeath harkens back to the I-III days of FF.
This isn't to say that V didn't have merit but it certainly wasn't because of the villain. The two most memorable people from that title are Gilgamesh - a joke character/henchman who stuck with you because of his dialogue and Galuf who took one for the team years before anyone knew about that Gainsborough chick.
As a fan of J-pop, that didn't bother me one bit. It would throw others off when one of the last songs of the previous installment of that series was Otherworld, haha.
I only made it halfway through FFXII, but...is it just me, or is Balthier one of the best FF characters SE has made in a long time? He stood out the most to me.
And speaking of FFXIII-2, most of the endings have been uncovered now by JP players. The one that's described as the "true" ending has everyone raging apparently. Could just be that it's really a "bad" ending. Still far from being sold on it.
You really think that FF5's plot is worse than that of the original three FFs?
Even though the FF5 characters were all blank slates as far as their abilities went, they were still actual characters with emotions and dialogue...unlike FF1 and FF3's nameless protagonists...
See, this is one reason I loved FF1 so much. You made your own characters, chose jobs, gave them names, etc. You weren't sitting back watching someone else's story, you projected your character(s) into the story, like we did in FFXI. I get much more involved when it's my character who's life is on the line, rather than having a character pushed on me I may or may not end up liking.
I get much more involved in rpg's when I get to create my character myself. When you're given a pre-made character to play, there's always the chance you aren't going to like them, and that can eclipse an otherwise good game if you can't get involved or interested. Case in point, I enjoyed the characters from FFIV and FFVI, I hated all the cast from XIII. XIII might have been an amazing game if I could stomach the dialogue or gave two shits about what happened to the protagonists.
If I don't like the character, I simply have a lot of trouble getting into the game.
See, this is one reason I loved FF1 so much. You made your own characters, chose jobs, gave them names, etc.
Oh, I hope you don't think I was hating on this style of RPG or anything! I actually fully agree with you. I simply had to argue against the accusation that FF5's cast "might as well have been amoebas."
It's the principle. It's just another thing to add to the list of evidence that SE doesn't understand its fans and will continue to make sub-par gaming experiences.
I want to show people why I'm a fan of this franchise and its developer. I don't want to be embarrassed when someone has to witness the kitschy, cutesy, convoluted dialogue and storytelling in cutscenes. There is no JRPG humour or quirkiness left in these games - something that is typically understandable or at the very least forgivable given the game's other merits. Characters like Cait Sith in VII can be described best with simply a "lol, wtf?" from people who aren't familiar with the games. The same can't be said about characters that shout and cry about being a hero - what the hell does that even mean? Even given the context of the story, what heroic archetype is this character supposed to be referencing? There was no lore or back story within the game to even begin to understand what this character is supposed to be identifying himself with. The storytelling is empty, vague at best. The games are filled with characters that you couldn't care less about because they don't have any purpose - something that is compounded by Tetsuya Nomura's typical anime character design. Something that started as a joke about a spiky-haired protagonist (even referenced in-game, for good comedic effect) is now just apparent in every character in these games - a fantasy game doesn't have to include arbitrary fashion in their character models. What does that dress signify? Why is it relevant in this world you've created (or failed to create, to be precise).
Don't take these examples completely literally; the examples themselves are all minor and simply hint at the failing of the immersive experience of the RPG. Its universe, its characters, and its story. All are half-built and hardly worthwhile, definitely not memorable.
It's not Xbox (unless it is, which would be strange), it's pre-ordering from Gamestop. You get an alt for Serah + Genji Bow.
Pre-ordering from Amazon gives you an Omega fight. I kinda want Omega (not sure if he can be in your party after or not) but....that Genji bow...
Genji Bow is only for Power-Up Reward members though. If you aren't one already, then consider it $15 DLC, heh. I've been one for years so I'm good. This weapon attacks really fast from what they said so I'm probably gonna go with this rather than Amazon. Plus I hate ordering stuff, I wanna pick up my copy hands on.
Yeah I don't like Noel's that much either. I don't know which region gets what though. I hate when SE does this ***. Just give the same stuff to everyone.
